Head elements such as, for example, comb plates, balustrade clips, skirt-panel fastening brackets, handrail return sheaves, finger-protection mechanisms, and the like of an escalator or moving walk are usually mounted on the escalator or moving walk truss, and are adjusted individually.
A disadvantage of such a known assembly procedure is that the truss must first be completely assembled before mounting of the head elements can be started, which results in a long process time for assembly of the complete escalator or moving walk.
The present invention proposes a solution for avoiding the disadvantages of the known construction and permitting the construction of an escalator or moving walk to be carried out in such a manner that assembly operations can be performed in parallel.
The invention combines head elements into a pre-assembled sub-assembly which can then be mounted on the escalator or moving walk head truss. The sub-assembly may include a pair of comb plate holders to support a comb plate.
The advantages achieved by the invention include that the process time for assembly of the complete escalator or moving walk can be substantially shortened. In addition, the head elements can be combined into a sub-assembly independent of mounting on the truss and adjusted in advance. The sub-assembly can then be mounted in one piece on the truss of the escalator or moving walk.
In the further description of a preferred, but nonetheless illustrative embodiment that follows, the invention is presented in relation to an escalator. However, the disclosure also applies analogously to a moving walk, wherein escalator steps 9.1 correspond to moving walk pallets. The listing of the head elements is not exhaustive.